Produce in Smaller Chunks and Ship. It’s Therapeutic
For a guy who has already (gently) bashed Second Brains, it would be an unlikely move to quote Tiago Forte let alone write a whole post to promote his ideas.
I have already gone on record saying that I think the "E" part of Tiago’s CODE is probably the most overlooked part of the apt acronym. I believe that too many of us are caught in collecting and refining. So much so that we don’t even question (1) what we are doing it for and (2) wether all this collecting and refining results in something tangible being produced, at least on a semi-regular basis. Or maybe it is just me who has been stuck "collecting and refining", and then I just extrapolate this on the others.
It may be that some people like learning for learning’s sake. To each their own, of course. I personally feel I have been doing too much of that learning for too long. And I think I am done with that.
Anyways. One thing Tiago emphasizes is that you must "shift as much of your time and effort as possible from consuming to creating" (Forte, 2022). This is a powerful idea. But even if you wholeheartedly embrace it, it still is not as easy as flicking a switch in your brain and just start "prioritizing creating" if for a very substantial amount of time you prioritized collecting and refining (and "researching" and "getting ready"). For some of us, this could have easily spanned decades.
Let me tell you a story. I promise it won’t be very long. Some time ago, I spent some time with ChatGPT trying to figure out where my life went wrong and what to do next. After going back and forth a few times, we zeroed in on just a few things, but this was still "a list". When I finally twisted ChatGPT arms and made it boil it down to the most "pithy" answer, it said this:
You avoid public shipping and making concrete offers—hiding in private, perfectionist study—so killing that avoidance with daily tiny ships and small asks will flip your trajectory.
I am not paraphrasing. This is the actual response. Verbatim. Copy & Paste. Even the "spaceless" em-dashes are there.
Having either of these realization (from Tiago's wisdom or ChatGPT's "tough love") doesn't actually do much in and of itself. What we have to do is re-wire ourselves, which requires changing our thinking and changing our actions (where one constantly feeds into the other). Consistently. Day in and day out. One action plan for this rewiring is (1) producing in smaller chunks and (2) making them public. This of course is in line with what I have already gone on record saying in previous posts. And this is, of course, what Tiago is saying.
Why this could/should actually be our recipe? A number of reasons.
Smaller chunks are quicker to complete. This should be obvious. However, it seems like it wasn't to me. Or maybe I just didn't see the value in that, having been indoctrinated in the ideology of "the grind", with the grind itself also seemingly being the end goal and the reward. The problem is, if you do it too long with no real tangible reward, the "effort-reward loop" gets broken, and at some point your mind and body refuse to do the thing any more.
Of course, I did brainwash myself into thinking I was working for "delayed gratification". Don't get me wrong, delayed gratification is totally a thing and it should be. But not every time and not for every effort. And the worst thing is it may not happen at all. Which I learnt the hard way.
A small chunk, on the other hand, produced and shipped relatively fast, gives you a sense of accomplishment. Yes, this sense may be somewhat "superficial" or "fake", some may say, and the "chunk" itself may be sloppy and incomplete or total garbage, if we were being honest. It may not even be seen by anyone, nor may it get appreciated.
But even if it never gets seen or appreciated, the most important person who needs to know it's been done knows it’s been done. The most important person is you, of course. This sensation of accomplishment -- when you hit "publish" on a post or you git push a small snippet of whatever -- is real. And this is my plan to heal my (seemingly) broken (beyond repair) effort-reward system.
But it's not only that. Reward is good; it keeps us going. Even if it's "fake" and "superficial". What I think is more important in this practice is the underlying re-training and re-wiring that should be taking place. This practice teaches us to embrace the fact that nothing is ever "done" and nothing is ever "perfect". And that getting better or improving is iterative: you're not trying to make a "perfect something" by meticulously working on just one instance of that something for years -- what you do instead is produce that something and ship. You then improve that thing on a second pass or you improve by making a new version of that thing but better. Unsurprisingly, Tiago says just as much:
Information is always in flux, and it is always a work in progress. Since nothing is ever truly final, there is no need to wait to get started. You can publish a simple website now, and slowly add additional pages over time. You can send out a draft of a piece of writing now and make revisions later when you have more time. The sooner you begin, the sooner you start on the path of improvement. (Forte, 2022)
(It turns out I am such a fan of the guy. I should probably start looking into acquiring some of his merchandize. Just kidding. Or am I?)
Another aspect of shipping in smaller chunks is that even if whatever you ship doesn't get "seen" or "appreciated", you’re still making it public. This means that you have forced yourself to accept that it may be scrutinized and criticized. Even if not now (or maybe not ever), it should still send that signal to the brain, which I believe is an integral part of the above-mentioned "re-wiring".
So, I don’t know if anyone is going to appreciate reading about the theory behind RST Parsing, I am making it public regardless. A small-ish chunk that I may or may not use in my actual report later, once the project is complete. In the meantime, something's been shipped. It's out there now, criticize-able or appreciate-able. This action has done what it was supposed to do: forced me to stop researching forever, draw the line, and say, "this is complete, at least for now. I am shipping. If it needs revising, I'll do that later".
Since I have been practicing going “meta” on everything including my writing, I will say that this post was supposed to be shorter and I had been hoping to ship it faster. But it has still been completed way faster than anything I normally do, and it's been shipped. My effort-reward system seems to be getting some love these days.
PS: Tiago may not have done a good job researching what “commonplace books” really were but he shipped the book, which, all the possible shortcomings notwithstanding, is out there, reaching the people who need to hear the message.
References
Forte, T. (2022). Building a second brain: A proven method to organize your digital life and unlock your creative potential. Profile Books.
Originally published: 2026-05-31